JOIN US In a first, the Delhi University (DU) will open centres in Varanasi, Jammu, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Chennai to conduct entrance exams for over 60 postgraduate (PG) courses, with an intake of around 8,000 students.
An 18-member standing committee of the varsity’s academic council looking into the PG admissions gave a nod to the proposal on Tuesday. The committee has also decided to give cut-off relaxation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates.
“The cut-off bar for OBC students will be up to 10% lower than that for general category students. If the cut-off is 60% for general category students, OBC candidates will need 54% or more, depending on the availability of seats,” a committee member said.
But there is no final word on when the registration for admission to PG courses will begin. Sources said the varsity administration intends to wrap up registrations for postgraduate courses by May 15.
The committee in its March 31 meeting had resolved to start online registrations from Monday.
The dates were deferred after some members said they needed more time to deliberate on the proposal for holding entrance exams outside the national capital.
DU reserves 50% of the total seats for direct admission for most of its PG courses, except for professional or interdisciplinary programmes. A merit list is prepared based on marks scored by applicants in their undergraduate programmes.
The remaining 50% seats are filled through entrance exams and sometimes it is followed by interviews. Until last year, holding interviews was the prerogative of varsity departments.
Over 84,000 students had applied for various PG courses in 2014, and in 2015, the number rose to 1,10,570.